Franck Ribery struck a late winner to give Bayern Munich a 1-0 win at home to Hamburg SV and send the Bavarians top of the Bundesliga on Sunday for the first time this season
The Frenchman burst down the left, cut inside his marker and scored with a shot inside the near post in the 78th minute.
The win moved Bayern onto 52 points, two ahead of previous leaders Bayer Leverkusen.
Schalke 04 are a further two points behind in third place.
Hanover 96 finished the weekend in the relegation zone after they lost 1-0 at home to VfL Wolfsburg in Sunday’s other game.
“It was an even match, Hamburg have very good players but a single player decided the match,” Bayern coach Louis van Gaal said.
Bayern appeared to be running out of ideas until Ribery struck.
The hosts made a lively start with Arjen Robben’s runs down the right continually troubling the visitors. Mark van Bommel had a shot deflected wide and Thomas Mueller forced Frank Rost into a difficult save from a narrow angle in the first half hour.
Hamburg sounded their first warning when Piotr Trochowski fired over following a counter-attack while Mladen Petric should have done better just before half-time when he missed from a good positon position.
Hamburg, fourth with 40 points, managed to frustrate the hosts for most of the second half.
Robben’s runs became increasingly unproductive and predictable and Bayern’s final passes repeatedly went astray.
Ribery looked the most dangerous, toe-poking one effort just wide before breaking the deadlock near the end.
Hanover slumped to their ninth defeat in a row as they dropped to 17th in the 18-team table with 17 points.
The hosts had the better of the game but failed to take their chances and were punished by Zvjezdan Misimovic who turned in from close-range in the 78th minute.
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